
Throughout the
year, we’ve posted about efforts at the federal
and Minnesota
legislative level to enact paid sick leave laws. So far, there’s no federal or Minnesota state-wide
law, but there is clearly a growing
movement afoot
around the country to pass such laws. And now, the Minneapolis City Council is
getting in on the action. The City Council is considering an ordinance that has
been referred to as one of the most far-reaching paid sick leave initiatives in
the nation. The proposed ordinance, known as the Working
Family Agenda, would require every business in the city of Minneapolis to
give paid sick leave to workers and to provide advance notice of work schedules
or face additional payroll costs.
The sick leave portion
of the proposed ordinance, while not without its potential burdens, is less
concerning than the proposed work scheduling provisions. Many employers already
voluntary provide paid time off to sick workers. For those that do not,
however, the ordinance would require the City’s approximately 39,000 businesses
to provide workers with one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.
Many Minneapolis
employers are, however, understandably riled up about the ordinance’s proposed
provisions on employee scheduling and “predictability pay.” As originally
proposed, the ordinance would have required Minneapolis employers to give hourly
employees at least 28 days’ advance notice of their work schedules. In
addition, employers who fail to meet the notice requirement would have been
required to pay extra to employees, including one hour of “predictability pay”
for each schedule change and at least four hours of pay if a schedule is
adjusted within 24 hours of a shift. The original proposal also provided for an
employee to be paid overtime pay for work over eight hours in a day or where
the employee was required, without his or her consent, to work without at least an 11-hour break between shifts, more than 55 hours
in a week, or more than six days in a row.
It was reported
today that, in response to intense criticism of the proposed ordinance, the
City Council is making revisions to reduce the advance notice period for
employee schedules to 14 days. In addition, the Council is considering some
protections for schedules that include four 10-hour shifts and a phased-in
implementation period to permit small businesses to adapt to the ordinance. Even
with these changes, however, the proposed ordinance could prove extremely burdensome
for many types of businesses (e.g. restaurant, retail, salon, and manufacturing
to name just a few) for which scheduling depends on multiple, fluid factors
that cannot always be predicted weeks in advance. For example, changes in customer
demand can cause a need for short-notice changes in schedules as can, of
course, unanticipated absences of other employees or other unforeseen circumstances.
The City Council
is apparently set to vote on the proposed ordinance by the end of this year. In
deciding how to vote, City Council members will have to balance the hardship stories
that they are hearing from individuals who work multiple, low-paying jobs in
the City with little protection against the potential burdens of the ordinance on
businesses, particularly small businesses with fluctuating demand. As the Council
vote approaches, we’ll be keeping an ear to the ground for new developments,
but Minneapolis employers will want to stay tuned and can reach out to City
officials to share their views.
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